This invention relates generally to cover plates and specifically to cover plates for use in covering an opening in an automotive vehicle body panel.
In many automotive vehicle body panels it is common to have various openings for allowing access to fasteners, for passing through electrical wire harnesses, for passing through sunroof drain tubes, for welding gun access, or for passing through connecting rods. Such body panels often consist of passenger doors, the rear seat back panel, the engine compartment fire wall or the toe pan. While such openings are often necessary, they nevertheless cause acoustical noise problems, water entry, dust entry and undesirable air flow into the passenger or trunk compartments.
A variety of plugs have been used to cover these automotive vehicle body panel openings. One such conventional device uses an elastomeric coated ferrous material which has a pair of threaded studs butt welded thereagainst. This coated member is installed against the body panel so as to cover the opening and have the threaded studs protruding through adjacent holes. Nuts are then driven onto these studs from an opposing side of the body panel. However, this cover can be costly to manufacture and difficult to install on a quickly moving assembly line. Another device commonly used to cover access holes is a pressure sensitive adhesive coated die-cut patch of flat elastomeric material. This patch is merely compressed against the body panel over the opening. While such a construction is cost effective, its sealing quality and adhesive durability are often lacking. Furthermore, this adhesive coated patch is very operator sensitive and does not effectively seal around pass through devices. A variety of other traditional closures are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,560,083 entitled "Closure and Method for an Aperture," which issued to Danico on Dec. 24, 1985; 3,900,130 entitled "Insert for Securing in a Hole," which issued to Andrews on Aug. 19, 1975; 3,438,536 entitled "Removable Covers," which issued to Tarchalski on Apr. 15, 1969; and, 3,278,066 entitled "Closure Plate for Electrical Panelboard," which issued to George et al. on Oct. 11, 1966. These closures typically have a variety of clips or flanges extending along the edges thereof.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a cover plate which is cost effective to manufacture, provides a high quality seal, can be firmly secured to an automotive vehicle body panel and can optionally provide a sealed pass through for electrical wire harnesses or the like.